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Wednesday, June 30, 2010

ReviewBilled as "Laurel & Hardy on smack in Dublin", this ragged little film takes us through 24 hours in the life of two heroin addicts as they roam the streets looking for their next fix. It's extremely grim, but surprisingly endearing.

Adam & Paul (O'Halloran and Murphy) are inseparable friends who wake up on a mattress in a field outside Dublin. They wander the streets encountering friends who seem fed up with them, thugs who don't want them around and various people who will either victimise them or be victimised by them. But they're having very little luck in their quest for drugs. And as night approaches it's all starting to look fairly hopeless as each seat-of-the-pants scam goes spectacularly wrong. Yes, it's rather difficult to sympathise with these losers, especially when they indulge in cruelty and fail so wretchedly to maintain their relationships. The people who know them sigh audibly when they approach, hinting that they've been like this for rather a long time. But we do see one moment of tenderness (when they cuddle an ex-girlfriend's baby) that tells us there's a glimmer of humanity left inside them.

The film is the grimmest of black comedies, set in filthy estates with seedy characters everywhere. But there's just enough pathos woven in--a mix of dignity and humiliation that make these inarticulate dopes more like homeless puppies than low-life scum. O'Halloran's free-form script feels completely aimless, but actually has a tight circular structure. And Abrahamson's direction is assured as well, making the most of the real-life settings with James Mather's striking cinematography.

On the other hand, there are stretches that feel dull and meandering--scene after scene in which this duo pointlessly encounters someone and fails to communicate. They're inept and sad; Adam's surliness a contrast to Paul's accident-prone haplessness. And when they start preying on those even weaker than themselves, it gets very ugly. But O'Halloran and Murphy somehow manage to keep a spark of humour in every scene, turning this Trainspotting-lite movie into a surprisingly sweet/bleak journey to the other side of the tracks.Rich Cline, Shadows on the Wall

I was blown away by other's neg comments. I enjoyed it!!, 22 October 2004

Author: bertelv from USA, San Diego

The story is if a family running away from a tragedy. They find a tenement in a big city and try to survive. They do okay. Then through a neighbor who has AIDS and a new baby they learn to face their problem.

I read some of the comments of others. They all seem to be negative. I really enjoyed it. My family and I were riveted the whole time. I saw neither inconsistencies nor over melodrama. That is, I saw no more that in any other movies. All movies are just snapshots and almost all are lies. This one is no more or less in that regard. It was a melodrama about over coming tragedy. It communicated to me.

The actors were realistic. I especially enjoyed the girls. I also enjoy seeing

The Irish entry written and directed by Martin McDonagh and starring Irish actors Brendan Gleeson and Rúaidhrí Conroy takes place nearly entirely on a train. Mr. Dudley (Gleeson), grief stricken from the death of his wife, takes the train headed to Dublin. He asks to join a facing seat with an Irish lad (Conroy) who teaches him a thing or two about the value of life. There are some shocking and brutal twists of fate as the pair encounters a husband/wife couple that has just lost their first child and Dudley begins to wonder about the lad’s tale of his murdered mother. Meanwhile, the lad attempts to enliven everyone’s life with a supposedly true tale of a cow with trapped wind.

This biography of Christy Brown, the Dubliner who overcame grievous physical impediments to achieve fame as an artist and writer, trades in traditional sentimentality for intelligence, wit and genuine feeling.

As the victim of cerebral palsy whose eyes shine bright with burning emotions and whose foot becomes the instrument to express those emotions, Daniel Day-Lewis delivers one of the truly great male performances on film. He is so good one wonders how Robert DeNiro or Al Pacino would dare to follow up with characters of a generally similar bent. Daniel Day-Lewis' work here is definitive.

The movies shows us an authentic view of mid-century Dublin, and, not incidentally, it presents one of the finest portraits of a parent-child relationship ever seen, with Brenda Fricker absolutely perfect as Christy's wise and loving mom.

MY LEFT FOOT is testament to the belief that individual creativity need not be diminished by one's physical challenges. This is a feel-good film for discerning audiences.

PLOT DESCRIPTIONNeil Jordan directed this adaptation of Patrick McCabe's novel about a boy's struggles with violence and mental illness. Francie Brady (Eamonn Owens) is a young boy growing up in Dublin in the early 1960s, where his life is dominated by his active imagination and his best friend Joe (Alan Boyle). But beneath this benign surface lurks a troubled soul; his father (Stephen Rea) is an embittered alcoholic, his mother (Aisling O'Sullivan) is emotionally unstable and periodically ends up in the local mental hospital (or as she calls it, "the garage," because it's where they take you when you break down), and their next-door neighbor, Mrs. Nugent (Fiona Shaw) often rants that the Bradys are "pigs" not fit to live with. For all their troubles, Francie fiercely loves his parents, and he can't abide Mrs. Nugent's insults. But his playful childhood pranks begin to advance into more destructive and menacing behavior, which leads him to his own stay in "the garage." Branded a lunatic by the community and shorn of his only close friendship when Joe takes up with Mrs. Nugent's son, Francie is near the point of collapse when his father dies while his mother is still in the hospital. With nowhere to go, Francie takes an especially awful job as a butcher's assistant, and his overactive imagination goes into overdrive, flooding his mind with images of alien takeover, atomic apocalypse, and the Virgin Mary (Sinead O'Connor) that lead him further down the path toward shocking acts of violence. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

What would you do if your country was invaded? “Meeting Resistance” is a new documentary on the Iraq war from a perspective that few in the West ever see. It turns the spotlight on Iraqi men and women who choose to resist the military occupation of their country. We speak with the film’s co-directors, Molly Bingham and Steve Connors.

Here is a movie adapted from a best-selling Indonesian novel written by Andrea Hirata. It took 40 days of filming on Belitung Island, Bangka-Belitung province, involving 12 local actors, and reportedly cost Rp 8 Billion. It was released on September 25, 2008, at Lebaran holiday.

Plot:

The first opening day in Muhammadyah elementary school is wonderful day for two teacher, Muslimah (Cut Mini) and Harfan (Ikranagara), and 9 students who live in Gantong village on Belitung island. If the student in the school is less than 10, the school will be closed.

On that day, Harun is a special student who save them. And they are named Laskar Pelangi by Ibu Muslimah, who has unforgetable moments with them.

Get ready for a wild ride! A sexually rapacious Asian goddess known as the "Queen of the South Sea", possesses the body of a young female skin diver. Armed with an AK47 and an endless supply of bullets, this murderous Lady Terminator takes to the streets on a revenge filled rampage ....

Its like Kill Bill - but with oodles of sex. This combination of Asian black magic and western-style shoot 'em up is one of the key cult movies of the 80's. Even the jaded patrons of 42nd street were shocked to see how the lustful Lady T dispatched her victims...!

quote:American girl Cathy travels to Indonesia wishing to learn about mysterious "leak" - magic process indingenous to Bali. Of course she ended badly, trasformed to monster-ghost named Penanggalan - hideous creature from South East Asian folklore. It is detached woman's head with spine and internal organs. "Leak" is one of the most surreal (and funny) horror films I've seen.